The present invention relates to a spring, and more particularly to a load-bearing spring for a motor vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Springs find application in many fields, e.g. as load-bearing spring used for a motor vehicle and associated to a shock absorber or forming part thereof. With such a shock absorber with load-bearing spring, individual wheels of the vehicle are supported by the vehicle body. For this use, the spring is normally implemented as helical spring with cylindrical base configuration. In addition, springs have been known of different geometric configuration, e.g. spiral springs, leaf spring, disk springs etc. Such springs also find wide application. The task of such springs is to absorb and to reduce or store forces. When exposed to a force, the spring deforms and undergoes a change in geometry.
Springs permit a relative movement between two dynamically coupled components and provide an energy store. Some applications, for example in a motor vehicle, involve a control of driver assist or regulating systems which impact the operation of the motor vehicle and may involve an electronic stability program (ESP), anti-lock braking system (ABS), automatic damping system etc. For such applications, it would be useful to have information about actual force conditions in the area of the spring for example or also about other areas of interest.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved spring to obviate prior art shortcomings and to enable determination of information especially about actual force conditions in the area of the spring.